{"id":94861,"date":"2012-10-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-10-03T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2012\/10\/03\/changes-to-the-way-we-identify-internet-users\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:17:35","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:17:35","slug":"changes-to-the-way-we-identify-internet-users","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/2012\/10\/03\/changes-to-the-way-we-identify-internet-users\/","title":{"rendered":"Changes to the way we identify internet users"},"content":{"rendered":"

In our surveys this summer, we added a question about mobile internet connectivity to help us capture internet users who may access the internet on mobile devices.<\/b><\/p>\n\n

The Pew Internet and American Life Project has been gathering national-level data on Americans\u2019 internet use for more than 12 years. As the nature of internet use has changed over time, we have adapted our question wording to reflect new behaviors. In our surveys this summer, we added a question about mobile internet connectivity to help us capture internet users who may access the internet on mobile devices. When we include people who say they access the internet on mobile devices, this adds approximately one percentage point to the overall number of adult internet users[1. Adult users are those ages 18 and older.] in America. This increase is within the margin of error for the overall population. When we look at the size of the internet-user population in several demographic groups, the increases are greater than the one percentage point increase we see in the general adult population. However, these results have not been uniform and these demographic subgroups have larger margins of error than the population as a whole.<\/p>\n\n

Here\u2019s the background: For several years, we have calculated the number of internet users in our surveys by asking two questions:<\/p>\n\n

1. Do you use the internet, at least occasionally?<\/b><\/p>\n\n

2. Do you send or receive email, at least occasionally?<\/b><\/p>\n\n

We counted internet users as anyone who said \u201cyes\u201d to either question. Of course, the vast majority of internet users said \u201cyes\u201d to both questions. But we had learned over the years that some email users did not necessarily count themselves as internet users. As a rule, but not always in our surveys, older users were more likely to say \u201cyes\u201d to the email use question and \u201cno\u201d to the internet-use question. Overall, adding the \u201cyes\u201d respondents to the email question to our calculation added between one and three points to the overall internet user total.<\/p>\n\n

Starting in our August 2012 Tracking Survey, we added a third question to our internet-user screening questions:<\/p>\n\n

3. Do you access the internet on a cell phone, tablet or other mobile handheld device, at least occasionally?<\/b><\/p>\n\n

Now, we count internet users as anyone who says \u201cyes\u201d to any of those three questions. We have conducted two surveys using this new question language (one in August 2012 and a second in September 2012), and an analysis of each follows.<\/p>\n\n

In our survey in August of 2,253 adults, 85% were considered internet users by this definition. The \u201cyes\u201d responses broke down this way:<\/p>\n\n